


Starry Streams under the Night Sky with You

by Nezanie



Category: Final Fantasy VII
Genre: F/F, Fluff, confiding in one another, getting closer you know
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-10
Updated: 2020-04-10
Packaged: 2021-03-01 03:26:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,639
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23464660
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nezanie/pseuds/Nezanie
Summary: Summary: A close call leaves Aeris injured and Tifa resolves to help her in the aftermath, chiding the dangerous way she was protected. The awkwardness between them dissolves as they lay bare their feelings and discover they enjoy each other’s presence more than both of them would have admitted when their journey first started out.
Relationships: Aerith Gainsborough/Tifa Lockhart
Comments: 5
Kudos: 92





	Starry Streams under the Night Sky with You

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: AerTi bonding in honor of the new remake coming out and in hopes we get to see more girl bonding times!  
> I haven't played the original in ages and it kinda shows but I had fun writing this!  
> Celebrating the new release of the remake with style

Battling it out in the wild was a norm for their group of misfits, they had never had any problems before, in fact they were getting stronger day by day fueled by the desperate need to protect the planet in their own way. Perhaps it was a quest for redemption for the lives lost. Right about now it did feel that karma was getting back at the a bit as Tifa growled at the enemy taking a defensive stance. Darkness, the worst status to be in for a melee fighter.

She couldn’t even see the hand she shoved in front of her eyes, clawing at the intangible black veil blinding her would help. 

_ ‘Crap, we shouldn’t have divided ourselves in such a perilous area,’  _

It was a little too late for regret, they had decided that smaller groups would be safer, faster and they would reconvene at the nearest town or village on their way to Red’s home. The girl’s had been traveling with Red but the critters that attacked them pushed them away from the tiger and they hadn’t seen him since. The only thing they could hope was that he made it out and would meet them in town.

“Tifa, quickly, step back!”

The urgency in Aeris’ voice had her body react immediately following her instructions. The last thing she knew was that they had been surrounded, the monsters weren’t strong per se, yet what they lacked in power they made up in numbers and shameless trickery. Tifa’s energy was draining out quickly in the rush, hearing Aeris close by filled her with the courage of knowing she was not alone, she had to pull through! 

Somehow there wasn’t a single attack that was allowed to reach her, Aeris’ prompts and inputs led them to a quicker victory with barely added scratch on Tifa. It was rather exhilarating, even the final footwork, spiralling towards an enemy she felt innately but could not see, landing her strongest hit yet, the satisfying crunch under her ankle (aiming wasn’t easy when you couldn’t do it) was even more powerful than usual. 

“That was close, we should hurry and meet the others in town, safe, and preferably with a shower in our near future,” Tifa took a deep breath, winded from all the excitement, she clasped her knees and tried to ignore the fact she couldn’t see jackshit and how horrible of a sensation it was even when the peril was gone as she took deep breaths.

She heard a strained giggle, followed by a scuffling noise. Tifa tilted her head in confusion and listened- step, scuffle, step, scuffle - she realised it was the sound of something being dragged across the dirt when she felt a presence beside her. 

“Are you alright?” she said without really thinking.

Aeris sighed, a meek, stuttered sound unlike her usual bubble persona, “I’ll live, don’t worry, lemme see that, rubbing your eyes won’t help,”

That phrasing just made the worrywart in Tifa spring to life.

Fingers pulled at her palm taking her hand away from her face. “Oh,” she exclaimed, when Aeris' cold palm covered her eyes. The girl preferred to make direct contact when healing, at least hold onto the patient's hand. She was uncharacteristically frigid which made her stomach knot anxiously.

_ ‘It feels as though I’m connected to who I heal, and I can do my job better! _ ’ she had confessed when asked about this particular habit. Her hands had always been gentle and warm before.

Tifa felt her shoulder’s sag, unraveling the cruel tension of her bunched up battle hardened muscles as soon as her sight was restored through sheer relief. It washed over her like a wav e  of tepid, comforting water and she blinked adjusting to the newfound light smiling at the cute, satisfied grin aimed at her from Aeris. 

“Thanks I…” the words died out in her throat as her eyes scanned the girl from head to toe and realised the state Aeris was in. Tifa was covered in scratches and bruises, she felt their stings, her clothes dusty, smudged, at worst with a few tears along the fabric, otherwise she was in pristine shape compared to the flower girl.

“We should go back, the others won’t be getting to our next stop for a while and Red must be worried since we split up from him,” she smiled reassuringly, biting the inside of her cheek to ignore the burning sensation along her arm. Her feet certainly felt wobbly but it was still a short walk for the next town, Aeris would have to bear with it.

Tifa’s expression soured, clearly having something to say about her plans. Aeris’ dress was torn beyond salvation, her red jacket wasn’t in any better shape although the tough material had helped reduce some damage to an extent. There was one injury that was particularly alarming, her sleeve was singed and clinging to the bleeding wound. 

“Oh, what did you do!” Tifa scolded, grabbing her shoulders a little too forcefully and guiltily watched her wince. “You, I…”

Aeris gently placed her hand around Tifa’s wrist, laughing it off, “A thank you will suffice, and I’m sorry, I was a little panicked there, kept my eyes on you and didn’t pay attention to the fire spell they aimed at me,”

_ ‘I didn’t want you to get hurt,’ _ she thought, little did she know it was the same train of thought Tifa had. Watching the girl bristle and shake her head made her realise she already made a good friend. It worried her a little how much Tifa could brood on a problem and let it fester in her mind without seeking guidance, she had her eyes on the troubled Cloud and didn’t notice her own mental exhaustion.

Aeris tried to play it cool, she didn’t want to be an additional weight, nonchalantly hopped away, her teeth definitely drawing blood with the third jump, waving for Tifa to follow, “Come on, I can heal myself once we’re out of this den of monsters, we shouldn’t linger close to their homes,”

The brawlers smacked her glove against her forehead, free hand on her hip as she gaped incredulously as the healer limped away, “Oh no, you don’t missy.” 

She finally raised her voice in chagrin, stomping behind her and quickly reaching for the girl, with a swift motion, she threw Aeris over her shoulder chuckling at that satisfying yelp she gave.

“Stop that, put me down,” Aeris whined. Small fists collided with Tifa’s back and she couldn’t help the snicker escapsing at Aeris’s helpless and frail attempt at flailing, “This is ridiculous, at least carry me like a princess,”

“This is what you get for being stubborn! You should say it clearly if you’re too hurt, we can’t afford to lose our best medic,” Tifa chided, throwing her with a hop over to her other shoulder. Aeris’ squeak of protest was rather cute and served well to win her the argument, “Your leg is also hurt isn’t it? So be good and let me help you for once, I mean it when I say you’re our best user of healing materia,”

“A-alright,” she stuttered resigning to her fate, her injuries were throbbing pretty harshly now and her leg felt so swollen she was surprised she had managed to take any steps on it. “You can be so motherly Tifa, it’s reassuring to have you along,”

“And you can be so childish,” she grumbled, adjusting the giggling woman in her arms giving in to her demand of bridal carry. She really was too soft sometimes, her master had warned her.

It didn’t take long to meet up with Red, he sniffed them out especially with the scent of blood distinct and unnerving, the poor boy fussed over them seeing their sorry condition before they argued it was best to seek a doctor. Aeris would needlessly strain herself to heal up and that wasn’t ideal. She was already being lulled to sleep by the rhythmic motion of their jog.

Tifa had taken vanguard in their formation as the tiger made sure to protect their backs until they came in contact with civilization again. Luck was  _ finally  _ on their side, they managed to arrive in a small, quaint town without any other hiccups.

The pair agreed to send Red to fetch the others, she fathomed they wouldn’t be too far behind and their friend could get them to hurry up so they could plan around this little bump in the road. 

In the meantime the Tifa would find lodging. Aeris would need some time to be back on her feet, and first aid too. Seeing her completely out already Tifa could only chuckle as the girl nuzzled into her, her fingers gripping on her shirt as she skipped up the last set of stairs towards their rented room. The inn owner had been very helpful, they were used to travelers getting attacked and quickly settled them down.

Tifa was hoping to fetch a doctor, alas, the owner informed her the one clinic available was closed since the physician was out on a trip to restock his medical supplies so she had to settle for buying some first aid items and dealing with it herself. She had enough experience with burns and lacerations to make do and as a brawler tending to injuries was something she did on a daily basis in the beginning of her training although lately it wasn’t her own wounds she had to take care off. It was already ingrained in her, for a neglected injury could break a warrior.

“Maybe I should let her sleep, this ointment will sting...and stinks,” she mumbled, closing the door behind her and walking up to the occupied bed. Aeris lay sprawled on her good side, just as she left her, a restless slumber. “I shouldn’t have jostled her so much,”

Carefully with her fingertips she moved the girl’s fringe away before feeling for temperature with the back of her hand. “A little warm I guess, nothing too bad,”

“Don’t worry, no fever, believe me I’d know,” Aeris cracked an eye open, she gave Tifa a weak, exhausted smile. Her childhood had been a torment of fevers from experimentation, this was definitely just fatigue from experience, she knew it was best not to mention that. Tifa had a gentle heart, she didn’t wish to burden any further. ‘ _ She’s probably feeling guilty already, this silly lass,’ _

“That’s good,” she drew a breath of relief, helping her patient up to a sitting position, eyes crinkling at the corners from a wide smile as she saw how much more reactive a nap had made Aeris. Moving to sit by her legs on the bed she was about to grab Aeris bad leg when she wrinkled her nose, it was probably weird just touching her without explaining before. 

Tifa looked up shyly, uncertain of how not to be awkward about it, “I have some ice packs for your leg, we best leave it on and hope it doesn’t swell anymore,”

Aeris tilted her head as she arranged her frazzled hair from her nap, when she was done, with a small nod of assent, she reached for the skirt, lifting her dress enough to reveal the puffed up limb.

“Not too bad,” Tifa mumbled, at a closer look, it did have an unnatural roundness and redness, it wasn’t as terrifying as when she popped her shoulder once.

Aeris snorted, clearly disagreeing, “It looks like a sausage, how is it...not bad?”

Tifa rolled her eyes huffing at her antics, pulling the ice packs and bandage rolls closer, “Believe me I had worse.” She placed the packets along the inflamed limb and began wrapping them tight enough to lock into place with the bandages. “How’s the arm?”

“Barbequed to medium rare, irritatingly so,” she joked, earning an annoyed look.

“Surrrre, _ noted _ , I just want to make sure you’ll be mobile asap,  _ before _ you whine my head off for at being in house arrest,” she joked, grinning at how pouty Aeris got, “I found some burn ointment we can apply, it will still take days before you’ll be good let alone, 100% healed, we’ll probably stuck her for awhile,” 

Tifa’s eyes moved from her hands on the bandages to face the other when talking through the process, it didn’t help her ignore the fact they were in such close contact and Aeris exposed milky, white thighs kept popping in view.  _ Definitely _ not doing her any favors in concentrating.

“I’m sorry, I should’ve been more attentive,” she sighed, breaking Tifa’s bashful attempts at stopping herself from staring.

“Aeris, I really do appreciate what you’ve done but…,” Tifa exhaled frustrated, thinking back at the fright she got upon her vision being restored was enough to make her feel nauseous again. “That was too crazy, but, we’re a team, you’ve helped us out more times than we can remember.” 

She shrugged, reached for her hands and pressing her fingers between Aeris who latched onto them, “This time it’s just my turn to play doctor,”

“I think I’d rather play a different kind of doctor,” she hummed suggestively, giving the hand in hers another squeeze.

Tifa rolled her eyes, blurting a joke right back at her. It was high time she took away the edge the little vixen always had, “Don’t we all,”

Aeris squealed, finding it entertaining, rather than reacting meekly as Tifa hoped,“Oh, Tifa now _ that’s... _ !!” 

The annoyed caregiver interrupted the giddy cries by flicking Aeris’ forehead, announcing rather loudly her next course of action, and retracting her arm, “Alright, tying up this  _ knot  _ here, leg is all done.” 

She made sure the ice packs were secure and jumped off the bed, bringing back a chair she could now use for the next part of the medical visit, “Let’s tend to your arm, any other injuries I should take note of?”

Aeris puffed out a cheek, disappointed at her tease being deflected. She shook her head at the query, “Just minor scratches, no big deal, my clothes are just in worse shape than ever,”

“Tell me about it, I’ll go buy replacements first thing tomorrow,” Tifa grumbled looking down at the remains of her once pristine, she needed a bath stat. Though Aeris’ condition required her attention first, “I have some plastic bags so we can wrap up your bandages if you want to take a shower later,”

“Argh, yes, please,” she made a happy grunt at the thought, “That would be nice,” 

Tifa lingered by the side of the bed, her hands on the back of the chair she had found. Quietly she called her name, “Aeris?” 

“Hmm,” she replied, turning her attention to her teammate.

“You know you can rely on me right?” Tifa startled herself quickly correcting her statement, “I mean on we, er, _ us _ .” She made an irritated sound at her own fumbling before trying to explain herself again, “What I mean is it’s just me now so you can ask me anything if you need help but in general you can count on everyone, and me too, not just me, I…”

Aeris pressed her fingers on her lips stifling her humored response, the sound of Tifa’s boots edging closer. She could imagine her cute irritated look, “Calm down, I get it. Thank you Tifa,” 

She shivered as Tifa’s cold fingers pulled her arm delicately, closer to her eyes so she could inspect it.

Tifa stopped to check on her, “I’m sorry did it hurt?” 

“No it’s alright, your hands are a little cold,” she reassured her, aimlessly flexing her legs and toes and trying to look better than she actually felt. She was still tired out.

“Ah sorry, when I get worried my body temperature just tends to drop,” she inadvertently confessed, too focused on getting the arm clean than what she said.

“Hehe,” she giggled as Tifa set to work, feeling rather happy with the thought of someone looking out for her. It had been so long since anybody could keep up with the busybody Aeris had grown into. 

Every dab of the ointment cooled down the heat radiating from the burn and eventually soothed even the pulsating pain coming from her arm enough to make her mildly comfortable. She hadn;t noticed she had been gritting her teeth until she released the tension and her head felt instantly lighter.

“What’s so funny?” Tifa had eyed her suspiciously.

“It’s just that we never really had a chance to talk on our lonesome without our spiky, blondie goof coming to butt in,” she beamed as Tifa snorted at her description of their worrisome companion, “I never really had friends my age, boy or girl friends, so this is nice,”

Tifa stilled her hand, frowning in her pensiveness before eventually breaking into a pleasant smile.

“Ah, well, I’m kinda happy too...Jessie had been my closest girlfriend these last few years, if it wasn’t for her I’d be surrounded by silly men playing macho all day and it would’ve drove me up the bars walls,” she said concentrating on being as gentle as possible, she absently continued, and whispered in addendum, “Or to drink the whole bar’s stock myself,”

After a streak of giggling, Tifa continued, “It’s nice to have you on board Aeris, truly, you’re a lovely person, and I want to become closer yet without Cloud being the bridge between us,”

Aeris flushed a pretty pink matching the colour of the irritated skin of her arm so closely Tifa thought she would combust. It was the first time she’d seen her react so endearingly. 

Aeris just wasn’t used to such genuine compliments especially from Tifa. and the brawler might have been the factor that changed it up as she shyly muttered, “I...I don’t think he ever was anything between us,”

_ ‘So she can be a relentless tease but is weak to being the target huh? Good to know,’ _ Tifa thought to herself. Her interest in Aeris peaking, Tifa decided to keep the conversation going. There hadn’t been many opportunities for honest talks.

“Right, so I can take it to mean you’re interested in me?” she asked in a split second of courage only making the mistake of going for eye contact. Aeris’ blush turned out to be pretty contagious, her face felt so hot she wondered if she was about to melt, her fingers were definitely not cold anymore. The flower girl immediately took the opportunity to turn the tables on her.

“Yes I am, who wouldn’t be?” she smiled sweetly, expression tender. It didn’t have the same smug sounding effect with how both were so red faced.

Tifa tried to play it cool, she figured that she  _ wanted _ to impress, she’d rather take it to the next step with the perilous journey ahead and make her feelings of attraction clear lest Aeris was just looking for a friend. Which was already a dream come true.

One could never be too sure even if Aeris seemed to be batting her eyelashes invitingly that it had her tongue dry, it got twisted in all the possible replies she could have delivered and instead a gargle came out as she got her feathers ruffled over something so silly - those pretty verdant eyes, distinctive in their brightness of ancient descent were too distracting. Hiding her face behind a gloved hand she fumbled for words.

“I…,” she turned away from the other fairly certain of a stream of adorable giggles behind her that made the ordeal of embarrassment less of a bust and sighed, “Would you like to take a bath? We can check your wounds before bed or would you rather rest? I’m pretty much done!”

“I can wait, after you, we just bandaged my wounds so it would be a waste if I got them wet,” she decided she’d rather rest a bit more and let the medicine work. She pointed to the food on the bedside, “Maybe have some water,”

“Ah, right, maybe we did this in the wrong order, then if you’ll excuse me!” Tifa darted to fetch her a glass, pressing it into her hands and stiffly waved at her. Scowling at her own ineptitude she made for the small bathroom in their room grabbing a fresh batch of clothing along the way and had to resist the urge to bang her head against the marble tiles of the room. Thankfully they had been accommodated with one that had a bathtub, she wasn’t sure Aeris could stand on her bad leg.

“As long as it's clean it would’ve been fine,” Tifa said to herself, she could always help her if they only had a shower...“Wait no, thank you for the bathtub!”

Her heart was definitely not ready for that as of yet. She moaned at her idiotic string of thoughts, “What am I? A hormonal teenage boy?”

Letting the water - at the lovely temperature of scalding hot - run along her sore muscles, the warmth spreading along agreeably and washing away the dirt, exhaustion and stress. It allowed her to let the mind wander instinctively to the girl next door. 

Aeris was undeniably lovely, she could hold her own in a fight, headstrong to the point of bravely standing for her beliefs - not to mention how she protected Marlene when she barely knew her- and she really  _ did _ smell nice…

At first, she had been wary, the girl ran around Cloud mouthing off with no filter and it had shocked the less open Tifa who kept her worries for herself and brooded most of the time rather than acted. Now, it just amazed her, made her admire the girl all the more. 

Aeris was caring, gentle and faced the harshness of the world to the best of her abilities.

“Oh, I really am smitten!” she whimpered, driving her head into the tiles. She was going to have such a migraine later on.

Thirty minutes later, on the dot, a lobster red Tifa switched places with a bemused Aeris who thankfully didn’t comment on her elongated shower or her current resemblance to a tomato. Tifa helped her move to the room, later on deciding to wait for her to finish her bath (which she had drawn to a normal kind of warm temperature for the injured party) on the balcony after being vehemently dismissed from helping her any further even if it was just to arrange her bandages.

Tifa yawned, looking from above to the empty streets of the secluded village. It was so different from Midgar, not so different from... 

“It seems I can’t really wrap my arm,” a voice called out to her as she was leaning against the wooden ledge, chin on her palm, staring absently in reminiscence that time held no meaning until she noticed how long she had been out of it.

Tifa snorted, seeing how she hopped towards her, “Just wait a second.” 

The chide in her tone must have done its job, Aeris stopped moving giving Tifa enough time to look for a seat, finally pulling a chair out from the room, she bowed and gestured towards it, “You should’ve called me to help,your highness.”

“Sorry,my faithful knight,” she childishly stuck out her tongue in sheepish apology as Tifa positioned her, easily moving both the girl and her seat so she could have a nice view of the sun setting. It was as if the world was being ignited along the horizon, ever since her hometown was destroyed in that fire, she started hating the natural event, watching it to remember and never forget her anger rather than appreciate its beauty.

“You seem tense,” Aeris pulled at her skirt of her nightdress.

Tifa had turned back to the view, she must have looked uncertain because the flower girl shook her head, trying not to scare Tifa ,“You don’t need to talk about it if you don’t want to,”

“No, it’s just that,” Tifa took a deep breath of cold, krispy night air and exhaled with a troubled huff, “You know what happened to my town, this orange- red glow just reminds me off it,”

Aeris tapped a finger on her chin, unphased, “You shouldn’t actively seek to anger, you know there’s beauty in the world that's rather healing, look up for example,”

Tifa raised a brow confused yet complied nonetheless, there was something in the way Aeris spoke that made it easy to entrust anything to her. A choked exclamation escaped her throat, “Ah.” She gasped. The stream of tiny luminescent dots painting the sky above her was a marvelous sight Outside of Midgar, the stars could be seen so easily, it was the norm for these villagers they were no longer astounded. It was years since she could pinpoint the constellation that easily. She’d forgotten about them in Midgar, and tried to ignore the pain.

“Oh,” 

Aeris laughed at her gaping expression, “See, it’s not so difficult to find something to enjoy even in the hardest of times,”

“You’re incredible,” Tifa exhaled, wondering if this ability of reading people was just Aeris’ own or if she was that transparent. She didn’t seem to agree with Tifa though and hummed a little of a melancholic tune.

Aeris leaning into Tifa, pressing her forehead against the brawler’s hip, “It’s nothing, if I didn’t seek these things out I might have crumbled a long time ago, my mother taught me this trick.” Her hold tightened as her voice softened, “And I care about you, so I’m sharing it with you, and maybe we can show Cloud too,”

Tifa smiled down realising Aeris had opened her heart completely, possibly for the first time, with her. She raised a hand, caressing the soft brown locks, empathically, “Yes, we should, he needs the little boost most of all, doesn’t he?”

“He can be helpless,” she giggled, Tifa’s thigh feeling the revertebrations. 

“Right?” Tifa chuckled along, their laughter joining together in single, colourful, synced chortles.

“Alright, scooch over,” Tifa grinned, picking a squealing Aeris up and taking her place on the chair. Slowly, she placed the girl on her lap and raised her legs onto the table so as to give her ample room.

“Oh my,” Aeris took a look at their new arrangement, lips twitching into an amused smile.

Tifa winked feeling a burst of bravery, and cuddling into Aeris, “The night is still young, what do you say we...talk, get to know each other,”

Aeris with her hands over her collarbone looked down on her pensively. Tifa wondered if she had been too forward until she beamed so radiantly it was almost blinding, pleased with the new seatings Aeris made herself comfortable. Her hair tickled Tifa’s nose as she snuggled into positions. They found that the flower girl fit snugly into her arms, a gorgeous flower in a dependable basket. 

“Sounds lovely,” she sighed happily, welcoming the warmth still radiating from the earlier bath shared between them.

Tifa suppressed her own urge to shout out, her heart was trying to burst out of her rib cage. The night was still in its early stages, it was true and she mentally willed it to take all the time it needed to get to the morning after. Maybe it could stand for time to freeze for a moment. 

The sound of Aeris' voice, a melodious tune to her ears, recalling some childhood mischief was soothing to her ears.

Tifa hoped, prayed to the gods she believed had abandoned her all those years ago, to the world to grant one desire of hers, just for once and allow all the time they needed to get to know each other. As friends. As comrades. And perhaps wishfully, as a special something the word ‘friendship’ couldn’t hope to describe.


End file.
